The great run flat tyre debate.

[Locknut]

RandomTask said:

Anyone have any experience of just changing 2 initially before the back tyres wear out?

I did that. I had runflats on the front for about nine months with conventional tyres on the rear. I had no problems, in fact you would never have known there was anything unusual about the tyres.

[Manmoths]

I've got the 18s rather than 19s on my E91 335d and run Pilot Sport 4 ZPs. I've also gone up a touch on the profile and they're SO much comfier than my old set.

[Proctor4]

Well I have had 6 tyre failures of Goodyear F1 runflats in 5 years on my 330d xdrive, two side wall separations from the tread ( these occurred on the rears within 500 miles of each other when the tyres had covered about 6000 miles from new) and the rest bulges in the sidewalls, plus one wheel failure due pothole. As these tended to occur singly I replaced the tyres with the same make as usually the other one was almost new.
About a year ago I replaced the fronts with non runflat tyres and the tyre failures abruptly stopped along with a huge ride improvement.
I have just noticed 2 small sidewall bulges in one of the rear tyres so will be going non runflat on the rear as well.
All the tyre failures I have suffered have either not involved loss of air pressure or left me just as stranded at the side of the road as if the tyres were non runflat.
My conclusion is that a runflat may enable a short journey with a pressure loss from a nail puncture however they are far more easily damaged by our appalling roads not helped by very limited front suspension travel on the Xdrive F30

[Olas]

Unless you're chauffering high-level politicians you dont need runflats.

If you value comfort, or expect some degree of compliance, ditch the RFs and fit normal, non-RF tyres with more sidewall than your current tyre.

The tyre is the first part of your suspension and everything is a comprimise so decide if you want to comprimise toward comfort, or the ability to drive on a flat tyre at the expense of comfort (which is rather pointless when spare wheels and jacks exist.)

[Alextodrive]

Proctor4 said:

Well I have had 6 tyre failures of Goodyear F1 runflats in 5 years on my 330d xdrive, two side wall separations from the tread ( these occurred on the rears within 500 miles of each other when the tyres had covered about 6000 miles from new) and the rest bulges in the sidewalls, plus one wheel failure due pothole. As these tended to occur singly I replaced the tyres with the same make as usually the other one was almost new.
About a year ago I replaced the fronts with non runflat tyres and the tyre failures abruptly stopped along with a huge ride improvement.
I have just noticed 2 small sidewall bulges in one of the rear tyres so will be going non runflat on the rear as well.
All the tyre failures I have suffered have either not involved loss of air pressure or left me just as stranded at the side of the road as if the tyres were non runflat.
My conclusion is that a runflat may enable a short journey with a pressure loss from a nail puncture however they are far more easily damaged by our appalling roads not helped by very limited front suspension travel on the Xdrive F30

I've got a set of the Goodyears waiting to go on my 330D xdrive and this post along with a few others are giving me a second thought.

I'm able to take them back and get the michelin pilot sports for pretty much the same price...

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Great topic as I'm thinking of going from RF to non on my 120

[Court_S]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Great topic as I'm thinking of going from RF to non on my 120

Do it. Made a big difference to my other half’s 125i.

When we bought it (unseen / test driven due to Covid) it ride so badly. Even with pressures that were correct or marginally lower it felt like someone had filled the wheels with concrete. It thudded through pot holes and imperfections plus it shimmied around. It wasn’t very nice to drive really but none fun flats made a huge difference.